Lancers conquer the Queen's Gaels
By Tanya Quaglia
Lance Writer
November 25, 2009
 The dark October days are a distant memory for the dominant Windsor Lancers Men’s Hockey Team.
The Windsor Lancers swept the Queen’s Gaels this past weekend in back-to-back games, winning 7-5 and 6-3.
After a disappointing start, the Lancers are on a tear, winning four of their last five games.
The loss in that five-game span came in a shootout.
Danny Anger led the charge over the Gaels Friday night, netting a hat trick in the 7-5 win. Joey Derochie put the Gaels on the board first, but Mark Thorburn responded 17 seconds later, tying the game at one.
The Lancers offence peppered Gaels’ goalie Mackenzie Ball with 21 shots on net in the first period alone.
Matt McCready put Windsor up 2-1 off a pass from Kyle Nishizaki and Anger scored his first goal of the night at the 11-minute mark of the period, extending Windsor’s lead to 3-1.
A last second goal by Brock Ouellet in the dying seconds of the first period would bring the Gaels within one, heading into the second.
Despite a strong effort by the Lancers, the late first period goal gave the Gaels momentum, and they tied the game early in the second period.
Anger took charge and scored his second of the night a minute later to give the Lancers the 4-3 lead.
Brett Vandehogen gave Windsor a two goal lead less than 20 seconds later off a pass from Brett Oliphant.
The duo of Vandehogen and Oliphant took charge in the second and helped give Windsor the 6-3 lead, assisting on McCready’s second goal of the night.
Queens came out flying in the third period.
The Gaels scored twice in the first 12 minutes and peppered Lancer goalie Jim Watt with 17 shots on net.
Watt stayed strong and helped maintain the Windsor lead.
Anger completed his hat trick with less than 40 seconds remaining in the game, giving the Lancers a 7-5 win over the Gaels.
Scott Gillis also had a strong performance, assisting on all three of Anger’s goals.
Watt made 31 saves in the win and withstood the third period surge by the Gaels.
On Saturday, the Gaels had no answers for the streaking Lancers and the offensive performance of Mark Thorburn.
After trading off goals in the first two periods, the Lancers saved their best for last, and won 6-3, sweeping the weekend games.
A hat trick by Thorburn and a spectacular performance Jim Watt were instrumental in giving the Lancers the much-needed victory.
Jeffrey Johnstone put the Gaels on the board first, but Scott Gillis tied the game at one with a power play goal.
Johnstone would score again to give the Gaels a 2-1 lead heading into the second period.
Thorburn scored his first goal of the night in the first minute of the second period off a pass from Matt McCready.
Queen’s however played a strong period and pulled ahead with a 3-2 lead with one period left to play.
The Lancers took charge of the game in the third period.
Led by Thorburn, Windsor scored four unanswered goals.
Mike Barbour tied the game with 10 minutes left to play.
Scott Todd and Danny Anger were credited with the assists.
Thorburn netted his second goal six minutes later, giving Windsor their first lead of the night.
Brett Vandehogen and Brett Oliphant each tallied an assist on Thorburn’s goal.
Ryan Federman gave Windsor the 5-3 lead a little over a minute later.
In a last ditch effort, the Gaels pulled their goalie for an extra attacker.
The trio of Thorburn, Vandehogen, and Oliphant took advantage of the empty net and Thorburn netted his third goal of the night, completing the hat trick, with one second remaining in the game.
Jim Watt played another dominant game for the Lancers.
Stopping 40 of the 43 shots he faced, Watt was a key factor in the weekend victories over the Gaels.
The weekend wins move the Lancers into eighth place in overall standings, just two points out of fifth place.
The Lancers now return home where they will host the 9th place UOIT Ridgebacks on Friday and Saturday.
Friday’s game is scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday’s game is at 2 p.m.
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